Data protection a priority amid investigation in Germany: Mobike

Chinese bike-sharing platform Mobike said that it will “actively coordinate with” government departments, after the company was reported by overseas media to be under investigation on suspicion of violating European data laws.

According to a statement sent by Mobike to the Global Times on Wednesday, the company carried out work to strictly adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and industry standards in Europe as early as 2016.

“Mobike has been attaching great importance to the protection of user data since our establishment in 2016. Data protection has been one of our top priorities,” Mobike said in the statement. Mobike said that so far it had not received any inquiries from regulators.

The statement followed media reports that it was under investigation by data regulators in Germany over issues involving data and privacy policies.

For example, a report in the Financial Times on Monday cited a source as saying that the Berlin commissioner for data protection and freedom, who is responsible for upholding data law for Germany-based companies, is ready to launch an investigation into car- and bike-sharing companies, and Mobike will be asked to deliver a written response to a list of questions.

The statement noted that Germany is concerned with the fact that bike-sharing companies like Mobike collect a large amount of data about their users, which includes precise location data.

According to the Financial Times report, companies in breach of data rules can be fined as much as 4 percent of their annual turnover or 20 million euros ($22.6 million) under the GDPR rules.

Fu Liang, a Beijing-based telecom industry expert, said that some countries, like Germany, do indeed have stricter requirements covering data privacy compared with China.

“But I think data privacy is just one of the obstacles faced by domestic bike-sharing companies in overseas markets. For example, is there enough market demand in those countries? How can they solve random parking, which is not tolerated in overseas countries while China is not so strict?” Fu told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Fu said that it's unwise for domestic bike-sharing companies to enter overseas markets on a mass scale. Mobike reportedly spun off its European business recently, also according to a Financial Times report, while Ofo is also withdrawing from various overseas markets.